Thatcher’s ghost haunts PM May

Adevastating election and a high-profile speech strewn with mishaps haveignited a leadership crisis for British Prime Minister Theresa May at acritical time as Brexit negotiators push for a deal in Brussels.Aplot by a group of Conservative MPs to oust May was exposed on Friday,reviving memories of the backstabbing that led to Margaret Thatcher’souster in 1990.Many colleagues publicly condemned the attempt andbacked their leader, but the Sunday Times reported that at least threeCabinet ministers had discussed the need to replace her this week.Parliamentreturns today and May is expected to announce a number of policyinitiatives in a bid to reassert her authority, while there are alsorumours of a Cabinet reshuffle.But she will also need some progress in the deadlocked Brexit negotiations which resume today.Theprime minister has struggled since June when her gamble in calling anelection to cement her power backfired spectacularly and she lost herparliamentary majority.For many Conservatives, it is now a questionof when, not if, she steps down ahead of the next election in 2022 – andthe date most often mentioned is 2019, when Britain is expected toleave the European Union.“Getting rid of her is like going to thedentist,” a government minister was quoted by The Sun as saying. “Youkeep putting it off because it’s going to be painful but you know youhave to do it eventually.”There have been reports of bitterdivisions for weeks and speculation has swirled over whether ForeignSecretary Boris Johnson might mount a leadership bid after his contraryinterventions in the Brexit debate.Johnson pledged his loyalty tothe prime minister this weekend, but his erratic behaviour has drawnwidespread criticism and accusations of betrayal.Other potentialsuccessors include Home Secretary Amber Rudd, while Brexit SecretaryDavid Davis and First Secretary of State Damian Green are seen aspossible place-holders until after Brexit.Newspaper reportsyesterday suggested that May is considering a reshuffle of her Cabinetin which she would promote a younger generation of MPs.“Part of myjob is to make sure I always have the best people in my Cabinet, to makethe most of the wealth of talent available to me in the party,” shetold the Sunday Times.The paper said Johnson could be demoted in thereshuffle, which it said was planned for after the European summit onOctober 19 and 20.Britain had hoped EU leaders would use thatmeeting to agree to the next stage of talks on future Britain-EU tradeties, but this seems unlikely.EU officials say Britain has so farnot made sufficient progress on preliminary negotiations centring on thedivorce bill, despite May’s push for a breakthrough with her Florencespeech last month.Thwarted in Brussels, May had hoped to revive herfortunes at last week’s party conference. But her keynote speech wasdisrupted by a serial prankster who handed her an end of employmentform, and she then suffered a series of coughing fits that made hercombative message barely audible.The sense of chaos only heightenedwhen letters from the slogan “Building a Country that Works forEveryone” started falling off the board behind her.“The sense thatthis cannot go on may now overwhelm her,” wrote Times columnist PhilipCollins, one of a growing number of commentators saying that theleadership crisis has finally come to a head.Pro-Brexit MPs do notwant another leadership election to slow down the process, and there arefears the lack of party unity could hand power to opposition Labourleader Jeremy Corbyn.But Iain Begg, a politics professor at theLondon School of Economics, said the current climate had “an echo” ofthe 1990 demise of Thatcher at the hands of Conservative plotters.Thatouster was in turn followed by recriminations over Europe in the 1990sunder John Major that eventually led to Labour’s Tony Blair takingoffice in 1997.“If the wind goes against Theresa May she could befinished by as early as next week. But if the Cabinet is behind her, shewill survive,” he said.